Select Board recap: September 8, 2026
(7-8 minute read)
For residents looking to stay up to date on key town matters, this recap highlights major takeaways from the Select Board meeting held on Tuesday, September 8, 2026.
Watch the full meeting here on RCTV’s Youtube page.
Review the full Select Board packet.
Key takeaways
The Board opened the meeting with a night of recognition, unanimously confirming Deputy Chief Christine Amendola as the town’s next Police Chief, honoring the Reading Rockets Little League team for their East Region Championship, and issuing a proclamation marking the 25th anniversary of September 11.
Town Manager Jayne Wellman updated the Board on FY28 override outreach, including a full schedule of forums and webinars running into late October, attendance figures from recent sessions, and a broader discussion of the state funding trends the Board says are driving the deficit.
The Board declined to go into executive session and instead discussed two Open Meeting Law complaints in open session, finding no violation in either.
Night of recognition [19:45]
The Board opened the meeting by unanimously voting to confirm Deputy Chief Christine Amendola as Reading’s next Police Chief, following a recommendation from Town Manager Jayne Wellman. It then recognized the Reading Rockets, the town’s 11-year-old Little League team, for their run to the East Region Championship.
The Board also issued a proclamation marking the 25th anniversary of September 11, 2001, recognizing the innocent lives lost, including Reading’s own Kevin McCarthy, and honoring the first responders and ordinary citizens who helped others that day.
Town Naming Policy adopted [50:12]
The Board reviewed a redlined draft of a new Policy for the Naming of Town-Owned Facilities and Properties. Wellman noted two edits from staff: shortening the hearing-notice timeline in the policy from seven days to five, and a minor adjustment from Town Counsel Ivria Fried requiring notice of a public hearing to be posted within seven days of the hearing. Member Chris Haley asked whether that meant calendar or business days; town staff Jax LaVerde said seven business days is the common understanding, while Wellman clarified the timeline is the Board’s own choice rather than a statutory requirement.
Member Karen Herrick thanked staff for their work but raised concerns that an earlier draft’s guarantee of Select Board involvement had been reduced, leaving the Board without a seat on the naming committee itself and with only a final recommendation to accept or reject. She noted that some Select Board members already serve on the School Committee’s naming committee and felt it would be inconsistent not to build in similar involvement here, while agreeing that the committee should remain ad hoc rather than a standing body. LaVerde confirmed the policy had been narrowed to exclude schools and the Board of Library Trustees, which have their own naming policies.
Under the policy, a naming request moves through two review steps before the Town Manager assembles an ad hoc naming committee to research the request and bring back recommendations for the Board to act on. Wellman said a sitting Select Board member could chair that committee, which could otherwise include members of the public. After discussion of committee size, Murphy suggested up to seven members, with one guaranteed Select Board seat and a second available at the Board’s discretion.
The Board also aligned the policy’s terminology on a single name for the committee and discussed when a name could later be changed, settling on a general expectation that a name remain in place for at least 20 years absent a significant reason to change it. The Board then voted 5-0 to approve the policy as amended.
Override outreach continues [1:09:59]
Wellman updated the Board on FY28 override outreach, noting that the town has met its state-law obligations for public engagement and directing members to the override hub, which hosts recordings of past sessions and FAQs. She outlined the remaining schedule: sessions on Sept. 16, Sept. 19, and Sept. 30; an Oct. 14 session aimed at reaching residents aged 60 and older; and further sessions on Oct. 17, Oct. 20, and Oct. 28.
Wellman shared attendance figures from recent sessions: 74 people at the August 6 webinar, 42 at the August 18 session, and 39 on August 31, when a question-and-answer-only format generated more questions from the audience. She said the town plans different versions of its presentation for different audiences, and that a short video covering the override’s four main points is ready to share. The town’s online tax calculator is also being adjusted to exclude the first $100,000 of value from the Community Preservation Act calculation and to let residents check or uncheck the override and CPA impacts separately.
Murphy asked whether the override videos are being replayed on RCTV’s cable channels to keep information visible to residents who may not watch online; Wellman said she would ask. Vice Chair Karen Rose-Gillis thanked town staff for providing factual information, noted that social media can be intimidating for some residents, and encouraged people to attend sessions in person.
Haley said the override is ultimately rooted in decades of the state underfunding municipalities and asked who is accountable for fixing it at the state level. Wellman pointed to a Massachusetts Municipal Association report describing the same trend: Chapter 70 school aid has improved somewhat through the delegation’s advocacy, but unrestricted government aid has remained essentially flat since Gov. Deval Patrick’s mid-recession budget cuts and has only inched up since. She said the town continued to press the delegation on Chapter 70 funding and special education circuit breaker reimbursement, and that while state funding trends are a significant driver of the deficit, inflation is another major factor.
Herrick thanked Wellman for the peer comparisons but urged caution in comparing school spending directly across towns, noting that how much of a town’s central costs are budgeted separately from the school budget can affect those comparisons. Welman noted this related to the town’s accommodated costs: the shared expenses taken off the top before the budget is split between the town and schools.
Open Meeting Law complaints addressed in open session [1:48:31]
The Board also took up two Open Meeting Law complaints filed against Chair Melissa Murphy and, in the second complaint, member Chris Haley. A motion to enter executive session to discuss the complaints failed 0-5, so the entire discussion happened in open session.
The first complaint centered on an email Murphy sent to the full Board that the complaint argues shared a member’s opinion on a matter under the Board’s purview outside a posted meeting. Town Counsel Ivria Fried called the exposure minor, saying the email largely reminded members of existing policy, though the Attorney General could still view part of it as conveying opinion. Murphy said she signed her name to the email and called the complaint frivolous, saying she believes it was filed to make a point about a colleague she does not consider a team player. The discussion grew pointed when Haley alleged, without citing specific examples, that Herrick has repeatedly, by his count 58 times, used language in emails that he characterized as an attempt to work around the Open Meeting Law, then calling her actions “hypocrisy.” Herrick said Haley was off topic and that sharing informational material without attaching her own opinion is permissible under the law. A motion finding that no violation had occurred on the August 18 complaint passed 3-2, with Herrick and Rose-Gillis opposed and Murphy, Haley, and Bramante in favor. Herrick said she would not support that finding, saying she believes the Board should instead recommit to operating within Open Meeting Law and take the training, while Rose-Gillis said the violation felt like a “gray area” and there was no harm in reviewing the training.
The second complaint concerned the Board’s August 4 meeting, when Murphy and Wellman had arranged for the Director of Equity and Social Justice to make a statement during public comment, and Haley spoke separately as a resident during the same period. Fried said an Attorney General opinion involving a similarly arranged appearance could support a finding against Murphy, and that the same reasoning would logically extend to Haley’s own remarks. Haley argued his description of speaking “as a resident” was legitimate and that neither he nor Murphy could have anticipated the comments that prompted his response, comparing the situation to earlier in the evening when the Fire Chief commented on September 11; Rose-Gillis said she did not see the comparison, since that speaker had been publicizing an actual event. Fried explained the Attorney General’s review is limited to what could reasonably be anticipated in advance, and that she did not believe Murphy anticipated Haley’s remarks specifically. The Board voted 4-1 to find that no violation occurred, with Herrick opposed.
Watch the August 4, 2026 Select Board meeting on the RCTV Youtube page. Seated (left to right): town staff Maddie Baptiste, Karen Herrick, Board Vice Chair Karen Rose-Gillis, Chair Melissa Murphy, Chris Haley, Sal Bramante, and Town Manager Jayne Wellman.
